Yes, that's right boys and girls. The report that many politco-geeks have been waiting YEARS to read, has finally been released; the Senate Intelligence Committee's Investigative Report on Pre-War Intelligence About Saddam's Iraq. We've waited FIVE YEARS for clear evidence that Bush lied, and what do we get....(insert Price Is Right style drum roll here):

A report that is purely political and partisan

and a report that has nothing to do with Iraq, but looks at Bush Administration officials who had "talks" w Iran before the war, but failed to go through CIA and State Dept channels.

Several things strike me about this investigation, and there will be further pieces describing its findings, but one, single, fact rises above everything else....NO ONE CARES. That's right, no one cares. There have been so many investigations into WMD and regime ties to Al Queda that now, five years after the invasion...no one cares. When this report came out yesterday, it was mentioned, but it wasn't the core of any newscast anywhere. No one cared.

Why doesn't anyone care? I suppose there's three reasons

Most people have decided that either the pre-war intelligence regardin Saddam's regime was as weak and badly handled as the pre-911 attack intelligence was, OR they've decided that President Bush somehow knew what Saddam himself didn't know, and still President Bush decided to invaded Iraq despite being omnipotent.

For many people, it's a horse that's been beaten enough. The issue is dead already. Why beat it more?

Lastly, it simply doesn't matter as much today how the US came to invade Iraq. What matters is how the US leaves.

In the end, reading both of the reports released yesterday, I couldn't find anything that says the President lied. There's all kinds of indications that statements from Administration officials and the President were as wrong as those made by Democrats in Congress (people like Sen Kerry, Sen Clinton, and even the head of the Sen Intel Committee, Sen Rockefeller). No, this report-like all the other investigations-fails to convict President Bush or his administration of deliberate lying about intelligence. It does, however, convict everyone who claimed Saddam was a threat of making claims which (while often proven true by post-war intelligence) were not supported by pre-war intelligence.

"There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons and will likely have nuclear weapons within the next five years .. We also should remember we have always underestimated the progress Saddam has made in development of weapons of mass destruction."- Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D, WV), Oct 10, 2002

Look at any McCain thread... You’ll see MDS - McCain Derangement Syndrome, and outright hatred over the Gang of 14 (which, by the way, forced votes on judges rather than stopped them as so many MDS sufferers espouse).

FR is just a fairly typical sample of the larger (conservative) population, and most of us are Boomers with a libertarian bent. But we still embody the worse traits of the generation including the entitlement mindset and the fixation on our "precious" and "special" selves. I'm as guilty as anyone, but at least I try as hard as I can to recognize what I want doesn't count for spit where the whole population is concerned.

Like you said, for most people facts don't matter; it's all about ME, ME, ME.

[page 15] (U) Conclusion 1: Statements by the President, Vice President, Secretary of State and the National Security Adviser regarding a possible Iraqi nuclear weapons program were generally substantiated by intelligence community estimates, but did not convey the substantial disagreements that existed in the intelligence community.
Prior to the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate, some intelligence agencies assessed that the Iraqi government was reconstituting a nuclear weappons program, while others disagrees or expressed doubts about the evidence. The Estimate itself expressed the majority view that the program was being reconstituted, but included clear dissenting views from the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, which argued that reconstitution was not underway, and the Department of Energy, which argued that aluminum tubes sought by Iraq were probably not intended for a nuclear program.
[Page 28] (U) Conclusion 2: Statements in major speeches analyzed, as well as additional statements, regarding Iraq’s possession of biological agent, weapons, production capability, and use of mobile laboratories were substantiated by intelligence information. Intelligence assessments from the late 1990s through early 2003 consistently stated that Iraq retained biological warfare agent and the capability to produce more. Assessments on the mobile facilities included the production capabilities of those labs, both in terms of type of agent and in amount. Prior to the October 2002 NIE, some intelligence assessments left open the question as to whether Iraq possessed biological weapons or that it was actively producing them, though other assessments did not present such uncertainties. Policy makers did not discuss intelligence gaps in Iraq’s biological weapons programs, which were explicit in the October 2002 NIE.

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